Taxes, we all have to pay them no matter what. The government uses these taxes to support the nation, improve the way of life, and to help those that need it. Many people believe that adding new taxes such as the half-cent sales tax increase that Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca is fighting to get instated is wrong. Well I believe that it is the right thing to do for California.

Sheriff Lee Baca is hoping to expand the Los Angeles Police Department despite tough economic times. The Police Commission will has already started to collect signatures as of January 17, he needs to collect over 200,000 signatures in order to qualify the initiative for the November ballot. The initiative will increase sales and/or property tax by a half-cent in order to hire new officers. Sheriff Baca also has the support of Commissioner Rick Caruso who proposed expanding the LAPD by 3,000 officers from its current 9,300, a goal he said the city could accomplish only by asking voters to approve a sales or parcel tax measure.

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I also support the increase it is probably the best kind of investment the city can make. We need more officers in the city, we have half as many officers per capita as New York or Chicago and were just as populated as them.

It was reported in the news last week that it takes about 10-15 minutes on the average to respond to an emergency. Yes, increasing taxes in our present economy is said to be bad, since tax increase is part of a contractionary fiscal policy. But, in 10-15 minutes emergency can escalate to life threatening consequence. The half-cent sales tax increase from 8.25% to 8.75% would generate 500 million dollars. The money would be divided among the Sheriff's Department,

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